Lapras, The Transport Pokémon. A gentle soul that can understand human speech. It can ferry people across the sea on its back. They’ve been so cherished that there’s now an overabundance. The fish Pokémon population has declined in waters with too many Lapras. These Pokémon were once near extinction due to poaching. It likes swimming around with people on its back. In the Alola region, it’s an important means of transportation over water.

Overview

Lapras is a Pokémon that shows how power creep can effect a Pokémon. A top tier Pokémon in RBY, Lapras has slowly fallen through the tiers as other bulky waters have come out and outclassee it leaving Lapras currently untiered in the Smogon metagame having few niches even in PU.Positives
Movepool - Lapras has a wild movepool and is the major part of why it was popular. Moves such as Thunder and Thunderbolt let Lapras check Waters very well and while Freeze Dry helps with that cause STAB bonus, its more available to other waters removes this niche. Lapras also has access to Sing which is a powerful but inaccurate option as well. Lapras’ mixed stats also allow it to use Body Slam to fish for paralysis effectively.

Negatives
Jack of all trades - Lapras has the problem of all its stats bar health and speed are almost identical, being around 85 base. This makes Lapras overall bad as it has no defined role and as more specialized Pokémon come out makes Lapras fall behind.
Typing - Ice type is bad defensively, and this on a defensive Pokémon such as Lapras is bad. This makes it hard for Lapras to tank threats as it has a plethora of other common weaknesses. Finally a weakness to Stealth Rocks really hurts Lapras as it does percent damage to Lapras’ best stat health.

Abilities

Shell Armor - prevents critical hits - Not the most ideal ability so don't use this
Hydration - heals status in rain - a strong ability but useless outside of rain stall teams where Lapras can get a full heal from Rest and not have the sleep recoil
Water Absorb - Heals 25% health when hit with a Water move - Objectively the best ability Lapras has but still isnt great. This is the best option in most situations.

Hydro Pump is the primary STAB option packing high damage allowing Lapras to chunk threats that dont resist it. Freeze Dry and Ice Beam are secondary STABs for coverage. Freeze Dry can really pressure Water threats while Ice Beam has more base damage for things that resist Hydro Pump. Hidden Power Fire is for Ferroseed and Abomasnow, 2hkoing and OHKOing them respectfully..

Other Options

Assault Vest - Giving up the power if the Choice Specs Assault Vest lets Lapras harass special threats such as Alolan Exeggutor and Drampu more easily as well as gives flexibility to its moves to surprise switch ins expecting it to be choice locked.

Partner Ideas

Pyroar - A powerful special sweeper, Pyroar appreciates Lapras weakening walls such as Lanturn and Audino that it had trouble breaking on its own. Pyroar also likes hazard control like Lapras and its frailer nature enjoys Volt Switch and U Turn support like Lapras
Volt Switch/U-Turn - Lapras’ low Speed means it has a hard time getting in and applying pressure as most threats can just pressure it first. As such Volt Switch or U-Turn are nice options to consider to help Lapras get in and try to break walls for its team with less risk.

Countering Lapras

Lanturn - Being a premier special tank in PU, Lanturn can pressure Lapras hard with its powerful electric moves and forces Lapras to play carefully due to Water Absorb. While Freeze Dry does hurt, it wont OHKO Lanturn meaning it can still be a thorn in the Lapras users side for the game.
Hitmonchan - Assault Vest Hitmonchan can sponge a hit or 2 from Lapras and pressure it out or KO it with Close Combat. Lapras is also slower that Hitmonchan and as such can be revenge killed by it.